1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a technique for starting PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) OS (Operating System) and its utilities in a portable PC (Personal Computer), such as a notebook PC or equivalent electronic device. More specifically, in a notebook PC in which multiple PDA OS's are installed, a method and system is proposed to provide an OS menu for the user to select one of the PDA OS's and to start the PDA OS (including the OS's of hand held PC's, pocket PC's and other equivalent small electronic devices).
2. Related Art
With the increase in computer popularity, people often need to use computers to solve problems either at work or at home. In general, two major methods of obtaining information are: (1) from books, newspapers, journals, CD-ROM's, etc; and (2) from the network. However, both of these methods have drawbacks. The information obtained using the first method will become outdated as time progresses. Rapid exchange of information greatly shortens the life cycle of the information. However, such information recorded in media like books cannot be easily updated. The information obtained using the second method, however, continuously changes along with the development of the world, also resulting in some troubles for users. One can see the problems from the following points:                1. Existing personal computer OS's (Operating Systems), such as Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Linux, and so on, are complicated despite (or because of) their powerful functions and designs. Moreover, the user operation designs are not intuitive and simple enough. This situation scares people without any computer background because of the obstacles they meet while using these systems.        2. Users who do not understand the network structure do not know where to start their searches. In this case, the user often chooses to use a familiar OS or to install several different OS's in the computer hardware platform. This type of systems is called a dual-OS or a multi-OS. However, this method cannot solve the above problems because a utility is needed to switch between the OS's.        3. PDA's are becoming more popular nowadays. They have properties complementary to the desktop Windows OS, e.g. smaller volume, faster power on, more compact functions, and more convenient to use. Therefore, a method of supporting multiple PDA systems on a notebook PC is an important subject being studiedhe user is then able to enjoy the functions of different PDA systems on the same notebook PC.        